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Full-Text Articles in Behavior and Ethology
Foraging Ecology Of A Winter Bird Community In Southeastern Georgia, Rachel E. Mowbray
Foraging Ecology Of A Winter Bird Community In Southeastern Georgia, Rachel E. Mowbray
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Classical views on community structure emphasized deterministic processes and the importance of competition in shaping communities. However, the processes responsible for shaping avian communities remain controversial. Attempts to understand distributions and abundances of species are complicated by the fact that birds are highly mobile. Many species migrate biannually between summer breeding grounds and wintering grounds. The goal of this study was to test four hypotheses that attempt to explain how migratory species integrate into resident assemblages of birds (Empty-Niche Hypothesis, Competitive-Exclusion Hypothesis, Niche-Partitioning Hypothesis, and Generalist-Migrant Hypothesis). I collected data on birds foraging during the winter of 2017-2018 in Magnolia …
Tactical Escape Behavior And Performance Of A Small Sceloporine Lizard In Two High Risk Habitats, Seth Parker
Tactical Escape Behavior And Performance Of A Small Sceloporine Lizard In Two High Risk Habitats, Seth Parker
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The negotiation of uneven and complex terrain has implications for many small terrestrial vertebrates. Variation in the running surface due to obstacles like woody debris or vegetation can alter escape paths and running performance. Additionally, these microhabitat features can influence behavioral tactics in complex environments. The ability to negotiate physical barriers in dense environments likely influences survivorship through important ecological tasks, such as finding mates, foraging, and evading predators. The Florida scrub lizard (Sceloporus woodi) is a small, rare species endemic to two distinct and structurally complex environments in Florida, i.e. sand-pine scrub and longleaf pine-wiregrass sand-hills. The …